HAHA, I Told You!

I think our house may just be a little bit too small. I really like my house, but it's becoming a bit tight. The biggest issue is that we all are sharing one bathroom. It wasn't such a big deal when we first built our home. The "Leader of the FabFive" and "Little Miss" were just little kids at the time. Preschoolers. It was convenient to have us all right next to each other and sharing the same bathroom.

But now they are older and need privacy. And then there's also the fact that there are a lot more kids. The Dada and I are now outnumbered. The drawers are being taken over by kids toothbrushes. "Little Miss" has an entire drawer devoted to her hair stuff. All the adult stuff is being pushed aside to make room.

And of course there's also THIS problem. The problem where I will walk into the bathroom and find this:

You know what the funny thing is?

I called it.

Right here, I said it would happen. I just knew it. But where was I to put it all? There is nowhere in our home that is safe from our little Tornado. CamCam has access to it all. And he has curiosity on his side.

So yes, that's my new liquid eyeliner all over CamCam.

Looks like he had fun, doesn't it?

I wasn't even mad. Or upset. I knew it was only a matter of time. At least it was only one thing. It could have been all the new makeup.

Makeup is deceptively difficult to remove! I tried to wash his hands first, but the stuff wouldn't budge. I thought the Desitin incident from a few days earlier would help with this process, but apparently it had all rubbed off. Finally I put him in the tub and The Dada spent quite a bit of time washing up CamCam with a combination of baby wipes, soap and shampoo. It turned my tub brown. I had to soak it in bleach. CamCam also rubbed it throughout my makeup drawer. I had to throw out hair clips because I couldn't get the makeup off. There was a baby proofing cabinet lock in the drawer that is still tinged brown because I couldn't get it all off.

All of which, obviously, made me wonder.

What on earth am I putting on my face?!?!?!?

This Isn't Right

A Side Effect of Potty Training I Never Saw Coming

Recently my facebook status read something like: "I am equipped with stickers, charts, rewards big to small and am declaring today the End of Pull-Ups Day." A friend of mine commented that this should make for some interesting blog entries. But I pointed out that I was actually referring to "Mr. Trouble", my 4 year old who has been a NIGHTMARE to train, so no blog entries.

She was right, I was wrong.

I thought it would be better for "Mr. Trouble" if the rewards he earned were wrapped. Who doesn't like opening a wrapped gift? So I dumped out all the presents on my bed, brought up the tape and wrapping paper and got to work.

CamCam came in from the bathroom and sat on the floor at the end of my bed. He was so good. He was just sitting there, doing his little toddler chatter. Laughing from time to time. I was smiling, it was so cute to listen to.

But then I thought I smelt something funny. Not a yucky kind of funny, more of a I-know-what-that-smell-is-but-I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it kind. I went over to CamCam, who was back to me, and this is what he looked like:

What is this?

And why is there such a big glob of it right next to his mouth?

Yes, he had been brushing his teeth with Desitin. I don't understand why I heard joyful giggling, I should have heard gagging. Do you have any idea how impossible it is to clean up Desitin?!?! They say it protects skin from moisture, and boy are they not kidding! I could not wash that stuff off CamCam for the life of me! The more I scrubbed him with soap, the further and further the Desitin spread on his body and created a nice greasy coating all up his arms and all over his face. Finally I rubbed some powder Tide in there and that got most of it off. I figured the remaining bit would rub off on my furniture and walls. I never could get it up from my carpet, it just spread. Now we own an off-white carpet with greasy white spots throughout.

And CamCam's skin is very well protected from moisture.

Too Much Temptation

Guess what this is?

This is what guilt looks like. Pure, "I-knew-I-shouldn't-have-done-it-as-I-was-doing-it-but-I-did-it-anyways" guilt.

There isn't much that brings on this face from CamCam. Most of the time, when he's caught doing something he shouldn't, he laughs and laughs. Squeals with delight. Runs around in glee.

But not this time.

This time, even he knew he'd gone too far.

I've had quite the busy week. There have been school events, playdates, lots of errands, extra-late hours at work for me, and a snow day thrown in just to mess with me a little more. In amongst all this, I've been planning a bridal shower for my sister that I'm throwing this weekend. I had a very carefully laid out schedule of what needed to be done when to make sure I have everything ready in time.

Yesterday was the day I baked the cake.

CamCam thought I was making cupcakes. "Yummy! Up-akes!" he said more then once. It certainly did smell like cupcakes. When the cakes came out of the oven, he clapped. "YAY! YAY!! YAY!!! Up-akes!" I told him no, these were not cupcakes, and that they were very, very hot, and he wasn't to touch.

I should have know better. He gave me a look of "yeah, right." I should have known.

In the time it took me to go upstairs, get "The Baby" out of his crib, and change his diaper, CamCam had silently pushed a barstool over to the counter, climbed up, and had a little CamCam Cake Party all by himself.




My carefully laid plans have been thrown out the window.

Tornado Organization

Guess what I hate?

Books.

Yeah I know- books are good for us, we're supposed to read to our kids for 20 minutes a day so they'll develop a love of reading, books make you smarter.....blah blah blah. Picking up hundreds of books multiple times a day is NOT good for me. It doesn't make me smarter, it makes me angrier.

Why am I picking up so many books every day you ask? Do I volunteer in a library you ask? HAHAHA- this is why:

Ah yes, CamCam strikes again. Why does he do this? Can he not resist seeing the neatly lined rows and must instead have chaos?

Maybe it's like when dad looses his keys and so pulls the house apart looking for them. Maybe CamCam is looking for a particular book and cannot find it and so pulls the bookcase apart.

Or, and here's the one I'm betting on, maybe he just likes making messes.

He must just be laughing and laughing inside when he sees me working so hard to put all these back up on the shelves, trying to organize according to hard-cover, soft-cover, size and age-appropriateness. He knows that in less then 10 seconds he can have his big, beautiful, chaotic pile in the middle of the floor once again.

Cautiously Excited

I just bought myself some new makeup. I couldn't wait for it to arrive. However, now that it is here, I am nervous. I really like it, and it's been so long since I've had something other then Target makeup. This is grownup makeup, not the stuff I let my daughter play with.

AKA: Expensive.

So why am I nervous? This is why:

Can't you see the mischievousness in his eyes? Just looking for a moment when my attention is diverted from him so he can get into trouble.

A couple weeks ago, before I ordered my new makeup, I opened my makeup drawer and found this:

I thought for sure it was something yucky on it. You know what it looks like. Further digging though, found this:

And this:

He really got in there, didn't he? I don't even know where he put it all, since it was done on dad's watch. I don't know if dad even knew CamCam did this. I bought him finger paints, hoping he would get his creative self out in a more constructive way, but apparently he prefers alternate mediums.

Despite this, I went ahead and ordered my new makeup. I just hope I do not regret it.

Bad Mommy

CamCam was a very late talker. He actually said his first word at a very early age, and his second soon after, and then that was it for the longest time. Eventually he added a few more words, but he was always way behind where he should be. He never even did the typical baby babble. When he hit 2 years though, he started to talk more. Now he chats all day long, although he still has a lot of catching up to do.

Whenever he hears a word, he'll repeat it. Like the other day, the TV was on and CamCam was playing in the same room as it, but not watching it. However, and this is a REALLY good lesson for us all to remember, even when kids act like they are not paying attention to what's being said around them, they're actually taking in every word. So someone on the TV yells Charlie and then CamCam yells Charley! We laugh, so he says it over and over.

Today I had an oops. A big, bad-mommy oops. Last night I made a turkey for dinner. I put all the bones in a pot for today. Today I filled the pot with water, covered it, and put it on the stove to come to a boil. I kept checking on it, but man, it takes forever when you're waiting for water to boil. So I sat down at the table to eat lunch and started poking around on the Internet.

I totally forgot about that pot of turkey water on the stove.

Until I heard the dreaded "sssssssttttttt" noise of water boiling over. I looked over, and saw water pouring over the pot, and the flame under the pot scarily huge as it feasted on the fat from the turkey water. I jumped a mile and said it.

Yes, THAT one.

Oh sh..... You know the rest, I can't even type it. I was raised that swearing is wrong, and so I'm opposed to swearing. But I said it.

Guess who was sitting right next to me? And guess what he said?

Oh sh..., oh sh..., he says over and over. Most of the time when he talks, it's hard for anyone but his family to understand what he's saying, but not with this. Crystal clear. Perfect enunciation.

Another thing about kids is the more you try to get them to stop something, the more they do it. So every "CamCam, we don't say that word" was met with a "oh sh... ma". And every "CamCam mommy was naughty, she shouldn't have said that" was met with "sh... sh.... sh...." So I shall ignore it for now and hope he forgets.

Although we all know that won't happen.

He'll remember at a very inappropriate time when I'm out in public.

CamCam Ate My Homework

CamCam has been following me around the house for the past half hour with a little bowl of cheezits. I don't know how he made them last so long, except that he did go to his brother's bowl and take some. Oh, I also think I saw him take some out of mine and refill his bowl. Anyways, he was driving me a bit nuts with them because he kept spilling them everywhere and then he'd pick them all up, just to fall down or jump or something that made them all spill out again. Finally I went up to watch some TV and had him sit at the kitchen counter to eat them.

I kept hearing odd noises coming from where he was sitting. Kinda like a crunching/crushing sound. I know he loves to crush his crackers, and I thought he was probably doing that. Or playing with them in some way. I kept asking him "CamCam, you're not making a mess are you?" and he'd always reply "No ma, I eat." I could see the top of his head from where I was sitting and let it go for awhile. When the noise didn't stop, though, I got up to check him out.

His face was a mess. It looked like it was covered in chocolate. His hands were covered in glitter and chocolate. His mouth was full of chocolate.

Today "Little Miss" came home from school all excited to show me her science project. I had heard about this project last week at parent teacher conferences, and her teacher had commented on how hard "Little Miss" worked on her project and how well it came out. I was eager to see it. I put it on the kitchen counter so that her dad could see it when he came home from work. Each child had to make a picture of an element. She had choosen copper, and she had the protons and neutrons represented in the middle with beads. Around the center were glitter rings. Glued to the glitter rings were the electrons, which were represented by m&m's.

This is what CamCam had been working on for the past 5 minutes.

He even ate the one in the key chart, picked right around the 2 beads showing they represented the protons and neutrons, and pulled off the m&m representing the electron.

Not one bead was missing from the whole poster. Honestly, I'm kinda impressed he could look at this poster and see right past all the glitter and beads and know that there was yummy chocolate glued all over it.

Invasion of the Sickies!

Poor CamCam has the sickies. It's not the "sleep constantly" sickies. Nor is it the "cuddle with mommy all day and be calm and quiet on the couch" sickies.

No, he has the "whining 24 hours a day" kind. No joke. Even in his sleep, he moans. His is the "I don't care how overtired I am, I'm not going to sleep" sickies. Accompanied by "I don't care what mom is doing, I'm going to sit in her lap or cry at her feet."

So yeah, it's been pretty tough on me. Errr, I mean on him.

I really do feel bad for him, it's been over a week now of him feeling miserable. I just think that if you're not feeling well, and you're feeling tired, you should go to bed. If I was sick, that's what I'd do. Well, it's what I'd want to do, but be unable to do because of my three little monsters. Last night he was up past midnight. He was whiny, and fussy, and his eyes were all red because he was so tired. However he refused to go to bed. In the mornings he wakes up whiny and fussy because he's so tired, but he will not sleep in. I have to get up to get the older 2 off to school, and as soon as I leave the bed, CamCam follows.

How did he know I was up, you ask? That brings me to the next part of his sickness- he WILL NOT leave my side. He's been sleeping in our bed every night, and even when I wake up to get "The Baby" during the night, CamCam cries mom! and whines until I get back. He's got to have a sixth sense or something, I don't know how he knows when I get up. I swear I'm super quiet.

During the day it's the same. He's constantly in my lap. But he doesn't like to lay down on me, he sits up so that whatever I'm doing I have to try and see through his head to do it. I've been folding laundry with him sitting on my lap. It's really difficult to fold laundry around another person! Who knew? I try to get him to sit next to me while watching TV, but he wants to sit right on top of me. Heaven forbid if someone else tries to get close to me, he pushes them away and edges his little body in closer to mine. I do dishes with him crying at my feet. I tried to pick him up and set him on the counter next to me, but he cried and leaned over and wrapped his hands around my neck, and it was really hard to do the dishes or cook that way.

I'm not sure why so much whining is necessary. It's impossible to tell what he wants. Even when you think you've figured it out, you're always wrong and he falls to the ground and has a mini-fit. I think he's too sick and tired for the big-fit. Every TV show is wrong. Every drink he's offered is the wrong one. Every snack or food he's presented with is wrong. The other day he wanted milk, and his big brother was kind enough to get it for him, and CamCam had a fit because he wanted milk from the unopened gallon of milk rather then the one that was already opened.

So I think that until the poor little guy feels better, I should make his day as easy on him as possible. I will not do dishes until he feels better. Sorry family, but you're on your own for dinner. Laundry isn't going to be done. My hubby should probably find a new place to sleep since CamCam prefers to sleep sideways and would rather have me all to himself anyways. I could try to carry him while I vacuum, but I think he wants my undivided attention. I swear I'd much rather be doing all these things over sitting on the couch with CamCam and watching cartoons all day, but, ya know. Poor little guy's sick, what's a mommy to do?

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson by now...

CamCam has been sick lately, and so the days have been a bit tough. He's very fussy and whiny and wants me to hold him the entire time he's awake. It's been a very rare moment these past few days that he's happy to play, and so when he is I grab those few minutes and attempt to accomplish something around the house. He does take a nap, which is good. Today during his nap I tried to catch up on laundry. Usually I have my older two put their own laundry away, but I wanted a laundry-free hallway so I decided to put it away. I walked into "Leader of the FabFive's" room and was greeted by THIS:

I guess this is how he was busying himself while I unloaded the dishwasher earlier today. I don't think I even need to try and describe how I feel about this. Or how his brother will feel about the calendar he was keeping track of all his school assignments on HERE:

Autumn Trouble

The weather has changed. You can feel it in the air, winter is coming. The crisp fall air has been replaced by a cold that reaches into your body and chills you to the bone. The leaves have all fallen from the trees, and are brown and dead on the ground. You can actually see how cold it is just by looking out the window:

Kids, however, are not as sensitive to temperature changes as us adults are. While I shiver inside and only go out if necessary, they continue to play outside and ask me what my problem is. The other day when I dropped them off at school, I had to give them a stern talk about how the temperature is actually 33 degrees, only 1 degree above freezing, and that winter weather has, in fact, arrived, so "Little Miss Chatterbox" going off to school in a fall vest with her arms exposed all recess and "Leader of the FabFive" heading off to school with just a sweatshirt on was no longer acceptable.

Coats.

Hats.

Gloves.

I am so glad though that they do still play outside though. They do not have much time between when the bus drops them off and when it becomes dark out, but they are taking advantage of it. "Mr. Trouble" cannot wait for his big brother and sister to get home from school so he can go out and play with them. Especially now, they make huge piles of leaves for him to jump in.

CamCam wants to go out and play with his brothers and sister too. I thought not wearing coats to school was ridiculous, that was nothing compared to how CamCam thinks he's heading out the door:

Nakie Boy!

I can already foresee that there is going to be a problem this winter in our home. As the weather gets increasingly cold, CamCam's aversion to wearing clothing continues to grow and grow. I stupidly thought that the chilly weather would help him to see the error of his ways and he would start keeping his clothing on. It's one thing to run around in a diaper in the middle of July, quite different in November. But our little streaker cannot be deterred. His little goose bump-filled body runs through my house without a care in the world. He screams and yells at me when I try to dress him.


But CamCam, your freezing, I'll say. To which he replies: No, ma! I thought his ice cold hands and feet combined with the blue lips and goosebumps meant he was cold but I guess he would know better then me.


The one part that is difficult in all of this is that he cannot always get his clothing off by himself. He gets sooooo angry when this happens. So I end up helping him and in doing so become a cohort to his silliness. The other day he was quietly playing when I suddenly heard a scream from him, followed by lots of angry yelling and some frustrated crying mixed in. I went off to find him, figuring he was having a hard time with a puzzle or getting a toy to work. Here's what I found instead:

I tried to reason with him. I told him that we were leaving soon, that it was cold out, that he would be warm if he kept his pants on. I asked him why he wanted them off anyways? But then I looked at his frustrated little face and what was I supposed to do?

So I helped him take his pants off and he went on his merry little way. I just hope he grows out of this phase before he reaches adulthood.

Ice Cream Truck

When I was a kid, I remember seeing TV shows or movies where kids would hear the playful music of an ice-cream truck and they'd all become so excited and go running out to meet the truck. I always thought how wonderful it must be to live in a place where ice cream was brought to you daily. When we were building our current home, one day I heard that tell-tale music driving by our house. I couldn't believe it! My kids were going to grow up on a street where an ice cream truck visited all summer long!

My kids were just as excited as I expected them to be by the ice cream truck. I quickly learnt though, that it's not nearly as exciting as a parent. Those trucks have a way of coming by just as your making dinner. Or we'd take the kids out for ice cream, and minutes after pulling into our driveway, the truck would come by. Children just do not understand that sometimes it's ok to say no to ice cream. If the truck is here, we must buy. For a short amount of time, we actually had two competing trucks coming through our neighborhood. When the first one came through, my kids wanted to buy from it because who knew if the second would show up that day. And when the second came by later in the day, my kids thought we really should buy from that one too. It's only fair, after all.

However, it really is quite special to live in a neighborhood where ice cream is brought by your house on a regular basis. Ice cream trucks sell all the cool ice cream you cannot get in stores. Ice cream shaped like characters from your favorite shows. Ice cream that has gum balls for eyes. Ice cream that turns your tongue, lips and hands a different color for hours, sometimes days.

This past summer was the first one where CamCam understood the ice cream truck was his gateway to wonderful, tasty treats. After two visits he, too, understood the music drifting through our open window meant ice cream was nearby. My hardest part with him was getting him to stop running out without me. As soon as he heard the music, he'd start yelling "i-eam, i-eam, i-eam!!" and go running for the door. At the beginning of the summer he still had a hard time opening the front door by himself, but luckily he had his almost 4 year old big brother to help him out with that. By mid-summer, he didn't need any help opening the front door.

We'd stand at the end of our driveway waiting for the truck to make the loop and come back around by our house. My older two calmly waited, but the little two were just balls of excitement. The excitement built the closer the truck came. They yelled their excited ice cream chant, which got louder and louder as the anticipation built. CamCam would bounce up and down so hard, I had to keep one arm around him because at any moment I knew he wouldn't be able to take waiting any longer and would run off down the street. Once the truck stopped in front of our house, the two loudly yelled "yaaaaaayyyyyy" and clapped and clapped for the truck.

Now came decision time. CamCam usually just picked whatever "Mr. Trouble" chose. Which was good, because if they didn't have the same thing, you just know that once the truck left they each were going to want what the other had, but neither would want to give up theirs. They were practically ready to explode from excitement while they waited for me to open the packages. I handed them each their treat, and it was FINALLY time to eat! I think more of CamCam's ice cream ended up on his shirt then in his mouth. He sure did enjoy it though!

We have a long time to wait before next summer, but I cannot wait for the first time of the season when we hear the whimsical music floating though the air. It's so much fun to see the kids get so excited!

His cheeks and hands were pink for three days from this one!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words...

Do you see how far it is from the step stool to

CamCam's feet?

What kind of upper body strength must CamCam have to be able to push himself up that far?

And he's still smiling???

Pediatrician's Office

Today "The Baby" had his 9 month checkup. It was at 9:50 AM, so I knew it would be really hard to get to it. It's not easy to get my three little monsters ready to go out the door in the morning. We arrive at the office, and I'm in a hurry, so I decided to forgo the stroller this time. I grab "The Baby" out of his car seat. He has one of those fleece car seat covers, so he is not wearing a coat. It's a really short walk to the office, and I'm tempted to carry him in as-is, just so I do not have one more thing to carry. However, it is his appointment, and the pediatrician is going to be checking him out and I assume checking out how well he's cared for, so bringing him in with no socks, no hat, and a light-weight one piece outfit in November in Maine probably isn't going to cut it. I grab the quilt in the van and wrap him in it. Then I grab my purse, and then the overstuffed diaper bag. The diaper bag is overstuffed because along with the normal diaper changing stuff I need, it's also filled with things to bribe good behavior out of "Mr. Trouble" and CamCam.

I walk around to the other side of the van to get "Mr. Trouble" out and then CamCam. "Mr. Trouble" pushes the button that shuts the automatic door. CamCam starts to throw a fit. He drops to the ground and starts whining/screaming "I ush, I ush, I ush!" He wanted to push the button, so I open the door and tell him to push it. Nope, he just throws his fit. I put the diaper bag and my purse around my arm that's holding "The Baby", and hook my other arm around CamCam's waist to pick him up. He makes his body dead weight. I don't know if you've ever experienced trying to pick up a child that has done this, but in one second they are miraculously able to make themselves weight an extra 50 pounds.

So I walk to the front door, what a sight we are- two people stop and stare. "Mr. Trouble" has run on ahead to use his "magic powers" to open the automatic door. I hope no one ever tells him that the door is automatic and he actually doesn't have magic powers as this is the only way I can get him into the office willingly. I have "The Baby" on my right hip with the diaper bag and purse hooked over my arm, and CamCam is facing out with my arm around his waist holding him, but he is arching his body and kicking and screaming.

We reach the elevator and I ask CamCam if he'd like to push the button and he immediately stops his fit and runs to push it. However "Mr. Trouble" runs ahead and pushes it before CamCam can. Grrrrrrr. I speak to "Mr. Trouble", and tell CamCam he can push the one inside. But an elderly couple get in before us and the woman pushes the inside button. Apparently they never had kids and so do not realize that one of the great joys of childhood is pushing buttons. I vow that as long as kids are around me, I will never ever push a button without asking the child if they'd like to first. CamCam starts yelling his angry jibberish at the elderly women, and then resumes his fit. I grab him again as the door opens and we walk down the hall to the office. Only 5 minutes late, not too bad.

I tell CamCam he can go play toys, but he says no and cries a bit in the chair instead. After a couple minutes he changes his mind and goes to play. At that exact moment "Mr. Trouble" has to pee. Poor CamCam is so mad he has to leave the toys, so again I carry him as we head off to the bathroom. We get back to the waiting room and they have about 5 minutes to play before we are called in. I watched the fish swimming in the tank, it was heavenly.

CamCam is NOT happy about going to the room, I think he must believe the appointment is for him. Eventually we make it there and I pull out the box of car cookies I have. "Mr. Trouble" eagerly sits to get his cookie. Not CamCam though. I give him 2 and he throws them on the floor. I throw them in the garbage and he cries and yells at me, now he wants them. That's pretty much how the entire appointment goes: CamCam telling me no at everything I suggest, then him crying and yelling because he wants it or wants to do it after all.

I'm so grateful when it's over and we all head to the front desk to check out. The phone rings just as we get there, and the receptionist picks it up. It takes FOREVER!!! My little boys cannot take being there anymore. I have run out of things to bribe them with to stay close to me. CamCam starts to run off, I tell "Mr. Trouble" not to run after him but he does. They run down the hall with me chasing them, take a right, run down that hall, take a left and run about halfway down before "Mr. Trouble" tackles CamCam to the ground.

I'm beginning to think that "The Baby" not wearing a coat into this appointment would have been the least of my problems.

We finally are leaving. I give "Mr. Trouble" a very stern warning not to push the elevator button, that it's CamCam's turn. He actually listens and CamCam finally gets to push his button. We go inside the elevator and CamCam sees another red button and pushes it. Off goes the emergency alarm. It's so embarrassing whenever this happens. But this elevator has an extra button I do not know about. We're going down when suddenly I hear a voice say: "911, What's your emergency."

Oh my goodness, they actually made a button that instantly calls 911 RIGHT at kid level!!! It's only like 2 feet off the ground, adults can't even see it, did they actually make it for kids only?!?!?! I'm tempted just to run and say nothing, but I tell her what happened and off we go to the van.

Next time, I think we'll take the stairs.

Jail Break

My first 2 kids never tried to escape out of my house. So I was in for quite a surprise when I had "Mr. Trouble". Every chance he had, he'd try and sneak out of the house. It didn't take much for him to figure out how to undo the deadbolt. Eventually I put up a hinge lock, the kind that you can find in hotel rooms, so he couldn't open the door.

CamCam also figured out how to undo the deadbolt- once he was tall enough to reach it, it took him all of 5 minutes to figure it out. So I am very grateful that I still have the hinge locks on my doors. There isn't much that is scarier then realizing your 2 year old is no longer in your house and you have to run outside frantically looking for him.

This past Sunday I came home from work and couldn't get into my house because the high lock was on, so I knocked and knocked. CamCam and "Mr. Trouble" came running, and "Mr. Trouble" said he'd open the door for me. I talked to him through the crack and said it was too high, go and get dad.

So "Mr. Trouble" ran off to get dad.

CamCam, however, decided to let me in.

Juice Time!

CamCam is so funny, whenever he wants a drink he goes to the drawer where I keep his cups, grabs a cup, grabs the top, and grabs the plastic thing that goes in the top to keep it "spill proof."


I use that term VERY lightly, nothing is spill-proof when it comes to a two year old. If you take the cup and turn it upside down and shake it with all your might, juice droplets will come out. Even better, if you turn it upside down and bang it as hard as your little two year old arm can handle on the floor, you can get quite a bit of liquid to come out. This is best if done with milk as white shows up very well against a hardwood floor, and then you can take your little pool of milk and smear it all over the floor. If I could find a way to make a truly spill-proof cup, I bet I'd be a very rich woman.


It amuses me that he knows to grab all parts to the cup when he wants a drink. Kids really do watch what we do very closely and copy us. A while back, I really needed to get to the grocery store and so was out of juice, and milk, and he wanted a drink. I told him I could give him water, he said "No wa-woo, a-pa ju!" We had this discussion a number of times over the next 15 minutes. Finally he took matters into his own hands and went to our wine rack, grabbed a bottle of wine, brought it to me and said "A-PA JU!"


Anyone know how to explain to a two year old that not all bottles of "juice" are for them???

Does Anyone Else Have to Paint Like This?

I took on the enormous task of repainting our basement. The walls were pretty beat up from the kids. Also, there was a bunch of writing on them from our resident wall muralist. I had been putting off this task, as I knew it would be a doosie. I started out painting the walls, and quickly realized that I was going to have to do the ceiling as well. Since I was painting our ceiling anyways, I figured I may as well do a textured surface on it since the original taping job was so poor. So the mega project turned into a colossal project.

But I had CamCam to help me.

CamCam was fascinated by the paint. He so badly wanted at it. Every time I turned my back, he'd grab a brush and run to a wall. My baby was also fascinated by the paint. He was constantly crawling towards it. Once, "The Baby" reached the paint tray before I reached him and got two big fist fulls of the stuff. From that point on I blocked off a section of the room with a chair, ottoman, dinosaur toy and exersaucer turned sideways to keep him out of my paint. But CamCam cannot be contained so easily. The first thing he painted was the metal pole running down the center of our basement. It was painted black, but now the bottom half has off-white paint all over it. Many times he grabbed the roller and rolled the wall. This wasn't a very big deal, I just took it and quickly went over the area he had done and you'd never know he'd been there.

But one day I was using the roller, and had a spare laying on the ground. It didn't have a cover on it, it was just the metal frame. I didn't even realize CamCam was in the room, I thought he was upstairs watching a movie. I was walking across my carpet and stepped in something wet. I was so mad at myself for dripping paint on the carpet, and looked and realized there was paint ALL over the carpet. Then I saw CamCam in the bar area, he had the metal roller dripping paint and was "rolling" the wall. I took the roller away, and ran him to the bathroom and washed him up. His clothes were ruined, so much paint was on them and I have yet to discover if there is a way to get paint out of clothes. In the trash they went.

Now I surveyed the damage done to my carpet. I grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom and started dabbing at the paint. It wasn't going well, and no matter how gently I tried to dab, it just spread out. Not to mention that this was taking some time and the paint on the rest of the carpet was quickly drying. So I figured it was better to work fast then to work gently, and I scrubbed as much as I could off with the wet washcloth. Then I ran and got our carpet cleaner machine and went over and over the carpet. It didn't come up, but at least it was faded pretty well and when the light hits it just so, you almost can't see it.

Obviously all this carpet cleaning took quite some time, so by the time I got over to my wall to roll at it with the correct roller, the paint CamCam had got on it had dried. I rolled and rolled but I couldn't erase the ridges that the metal frame had made. I let the whole thing dry and sanded and sanded, then repainted. Ridges are still there. I gave up on it after that.

It took me 2 weeks and a lot of playing defence with CamCam to finish the ceiling, all the walls, and the massive amount of trim and doors. The end of last week is when I finally finished. It was such a great feeling! Our basement looks so fresh and new. The lighter color really opens up the room.

Then yesterday I'm in the kitchen doing dishes. I hear my hubby say: Where did CamCam get that marker? I look over and CamCam had just come up the stairs and is hunched over the top step and coloring all over our hardwood floor with red marker. He had colored all over every step on his way up before we saw him.

I hope he didn't color on your walls, my hubby says. I ran down to the basement to check my walls while he washed up the marker. I looked all over the room and couldn't see marker anywhere. I felt so lucky. I was so grateful that my hard work wasn't ruined so quickly. I didn't even punish CamCam for coloring on the stairs, I totally forgot to mention to him that what he did was wrong, I was just so happy my walls were fine.

Then later that night my husband went into our bar area to get a drink and says: Uh oh, I found where CamCam colored. Inside the bar, CamCam had colored an entire wall with red marker. Well, to be fair, it wasn't the whole wall, only three feet and lower.

I suppose I'll look on the bright side, at least I had 3 whole days of the room looking fresh and new.

Temper Tantrums

Temper tantrums amaze me. They used to stress me out, but after going through a few kids, the novelty of them has worn off and I am amused.

Well, unless I'm in public, then it's just embarrassing.

Anything can set off a temper tantrum in CamCam. If something doesn't go the way he wants, rage ensues. I do not understand how a person can go from complete calm to extreme rage in less then 5 seconds.

Sometimes he'll be playing with baby legos and the pieces won't stay together. He yells, throws ALL the pieces across the room, throws himself down to the floor and has a fit. Yesterday we were out and walking from the van to the toy store. I'm not sure what path he wanted me to take to the toy store, but apparently it wasn't a straight path, because he started yelling nonsense at me and when I didn't comply, he dropped to the ground and arched his back and yelled, kicked and screamed. There is nothing like walking through a parking lot, having your 4 year old walking on ahead of you, carrying your baby in the moby wrap, and having your 2 year old decide to drop to the ground just as you are crossing the busy part. Often one of his siblings will take something he wants and CamCam yells a loud "NO" followed by lots of angry gibberish and usually an attempt to hit them, and finally he ends with the classic drop to the ground with screaming and kicking.

However, most of his temper tantrums are thrown as a result of me. He'll be drawing on my health insurance papers so I take the pencil away. Fit. He's drawing on his sister's homework and I take the pen away. Fit. He's running around the living room trying to spray his brother with a bottle of Windex and I take the Windex away. Fit. He asks me for apple juice, and I give him a cup of apple juice, but apparently it isn't the kind he had in mind. (huh?) Fit. He's had 4 cookies and asks for another but I say no. Fit. He asks for "ca-ca" and I give him some crackers since 99% of the time ca-ca = crackers, but apparently not this time. Fit.

Today he wanted a snack, and he handed me goldfish, cheezits and animal crackers. I put some goldfish in a bowl, followed by animal crackers, and cheezits on top. Well he couldn't see the fish, so he starts yelling "ish, ish, ish," at me, and I pushed aside the crackers and told him that he had fish, they were at the bottom. Next came a very loud "NO! ISH" followed by the bowl being thrown across the room. Silly boy, now he wasn't getting ANY cheezits, OR animal crackers, OR fish.

Here's what CamCam's temper tantrums look like:

First, he throws himself to the floor and wails and cries as he rolls around a bit

Screaming and covering his face in the

"woe is me" pose

Lots of crying and he likes to bury his face into the floor. This is his "show of desperation."

Temper tantrums are very physical. For some reason he started moving backwards as he cried and kicked.

I'm really not sure why anger would bring this move on. Up and over the chair legs he goes.

And finally he reached his destination, inside the chair and all was well.
Just like that, his fit ended.

The only shot I'm missing is when he looks back to make sure I'm still watching. He was mad I was taking his picture during his very dramatic show, and so hid his face and never did the typical "she's still watching me do this so I should keep going, right?" look. Like I said, it's very entertaining.

Random Sleepiness

CamCam has embraced the freedom his "big-boy" bed has given him. At the age of 2 years he is exerting his independence and has decided that he's no longer taking his nap. I can bring him to his room. I can put him in his bed. I can make him stay in his room. I cannot make him fall asleep. So instead of taking his much needed nap at 1PM, he is up playing. He likes to empty his toy box and climb into it. He likes to fill his toy box with everything in his room. Often I hear banging on the walls up there and don't know if I should go and check or not. On the one hand, he could be causing trouble and I should go and see. On the other hand, what if he isn't causing trouble, but then he would see me checking on him and throw a fit because he wants to get out. So I figure it's probably nothing.

So instead of taking his nap at a normal time, he is randomly falling asleep throughout the day. Usually it's very late in the afternoon and he sleeps for a couple of hours and then is up pretty late at night because of it. Or the worst case scenario, he falls asleep 5pm or later, takes his 2 hour nap, and then is up until midnight or later. Or sometimes he doesn't fall asleep at all and is pretty cranky in the evenings, but at least he goes to bed early.

He's falling asleep here....

Most obvious one, in the van

He's falling asleep here....

Rocking Chair is a very comfy place to fall asleep

He's falling asleep here....
This doesn't look very comfy

He's falling asleep here....

On the floor

He's falling asleep here....

Same outfit, same floor, different day

He's falling asleep here....

Between his bed and his brother's

He's falling asleep here....

Watching TV with his brother

But not here....

eau de toilette

Every so often I'll be walking through my house and I'll step in a puddle of something. The first thing I do is smell my foot. Half of the time I can identify what I stepped in just by smell. If this doesn't work, I then hop to the nearest sink to wash my foot off, just in case, and as I'm hopping I yell out:

Who spilled something!? What's on the floor!?

Of course, no one answers. So now some detective work is needed. Sometimes it's pee, the smell test usually alerts me to this right away. Sometimes it's apple juice. If a cup leaked, it's a small amount. If "Mr. Trouble" spilled his cup, it's a lot. If "Mr. Trouble" tried to pour his own juice, it's a ton. Once in awhile it's just water.

Last night I experienced one of these moments. I was heading up to bed, it was almost midnight. Just outside the bathroom door, I stepped in something wet. I looked down, and there was a very large puddle of liquid blocking the way to the bathroom. What on earth is this? I wondered. I figured it must have been water from the shower that "Little Miss" took earlier, so I didn't do my hop/shuffle to the sink to wash off my foot. I couldn't figure out how so much water would get there though. I heard a noise in my room, so I go in to look and CamCam is hiding in my closet.

What are you doing? Get back into bed. I told him. His blankie was in my bed, so he climbs up into my bed, and off I go to clean up the "shower" water so that no one slips in the night. Once I get into the bathroom, there's a lot more water. Except that the trail goes right past the shower and keeps going. Guess where it stops? You bet, right in front of the toilet. Oh no! I go back to CamCam and realize that he is soaked. His shirt is dripping wet, his diaper is wet, even his hair is wet. I carry him to the shower and strip him down for a bath.

Again, I emphasize it is midnight, and I've been painting our basement all day, so I'm beat. I'll admit I had a moment right there where I thought, Well, technically it's just water. I could just wipe it up and be ok. But then I came to my senses and properly cleaned up the river of toilet water that lead into a lake of toilet water. Of course, CamCam had also been in my closet. And my bed. And I'd walked around a bit.

I thought CamCam would sleep in after such an eventful very late night. But nope, he was promptly up at 8AM this morning. He told me he had boo-boos on his foot. I went to look at him and he has all this white stuff stuck to his foot like glue. I couldn't pull it off. I went to wash his foot in the sink, it took lots and lots of scrubbing to get it off. But as it started to come off I realized that it was toilet paper. Which means that at some point last night toilet paper was a part of the "potty party." And I have yet to find any toilet paper anywhere, so I guess I better go upstairs and see what else this stuff has dried and glued itself onto. Wish me luck!

In Case You Weren't Aware...

Did you know that it is nearly impossible to clean up an entire bottle of Dawn dish soap from off your kitchen counter?

Did you know that when they say it's concentrated, they truly do mean it and as you add water the liquid will grow and grow?

Did you know that the suds created from cleaning up the soap will be so magnificent that they will come up out of the other drain in your kitchen sink and fill the sink?

Did you know you'll think you have it cleaned up, but you'll continue to create a massive amount of suds for days every time you go to wipe that counter?

Did you know that if you're so lucky to have had the cinnamon scented kind poured all over your counter, the smell will overwhelm your home for days and actually make you feel sick to your stomach?

Did you know that when you go to wash your 2 year old's hands and arms off it will take what feels like hours to get all the soap off?

Did you know that it's almost impossible to get the soap suds out of the tub after you've finished washing their arms and hands?

Did you know that when you put the clothes they were wearing in the washer, it will create an enormous amount of suds?

Oh Boy It's Grocery Shopping Time

CamCam is banned from Hannaford. They didn't ban him, I have. Although, I'm certain if I continue to bring him, it won't be much longer before they are the ones to impose the ban so I thought I'd beat them to the punch and save some of my sanity in the process. I see the way the employees look at me when I'm in the store, I'm sure it's just a matter of time. I bet they have a chart on me out back, and every offense gets measured against the amount of money we spend in their store. The manager is probably like: "Well, yes, we did get another complaint about her, however the person complaining is an infrequent customer and CamCam's mommy is spending exuberant amounts of money here and is always taken in by our supposed great deals and I do want that summer home, soooo... we won't ban her son yet."

CamCam hates sitting in the grocery cart. He wants me to hold him or he wants to get down and run. Obviously I can't have him down and running everywhere, the doors open automatically to the store and he'd probably leave without me. And I have "The Baby" in the moby wrap so I cannot carry CamCam. So he spends a lot of time standing on the cart seat, leaning forward with his arms wrapped around my neck trying to get me to hold him. Every time I enter the store, they have those car type carts and I wonder if that would keep him happy. However they wouldn't hold all the groceries I need, and they usually look pretty yucky inside. The other day I had a moment of weakness though. "Mr. Trouble" begged to use the fun car cart and it actually looked clean inside for once. I was trying to not spend so much that week, so maybe the smaller basket would help me in that endeavor. I caved and said yes, get into the car.

YAY!!!! Two excited little bodies scrambled over each other to get into the car before mommy changed her mind. Holy cow- that thing is like driving a train! It's so heavy! "Mr. Trouble" and CamCam are so happy with their steering wheels though. However, CamCam decides that maybe "Mr. Trouble's" steering wheel is better then his and wants to try it out. I'm getting carrots when I hear a loud BANG! Some "funny guy" walking by smiles and says "That sounded like a head." "Mr. Trouble" had pushed CamCam and his head hit the side of the cart. CamCam is wailing now, and rightly so. Now CamCam has the car to himself, and he thinks this is great. He can spread his legs out, sit in the middle, run both steering wheels at once! We get a cookie at the bakery, and it's even better! Why are bakery cookies so crumbly? I swear they grow as they crumble. I have no idea how one tiny cookie can make such a big mess. Now I know why these car-carts always look so yucky- ours has now started a food collection at the bottom and a lovely smeared cookie hand print portfolio is gathering on the seat and steering wheels.

Once the cookie is gone, CamCam decides he's done with the car and wants out. We're on aisle 2!!!!!! That's it! This stupid car lost it's novelty at aisle 2! CamCam is throwing a fit, hanging his head, legs, arms, any body part he can get out the side and over the edge. If his entire body cannot be free of this car, at least a part of him can! Then he starts twisting to try and get out. He somehow maneuvers down and his shirt is up so the seat belt is being pulled tight against his bare belly and chest. I sit him up normally, but he immediately twists down again. This is when the looks from other grocery store shoppers start. Couple more negative marks going on my chart, better grab an extra box of crackers.

Spaghetti aisle and the pretty blue boxes are too much to resist! Out shoots a little arm to grab one. I'm still moving, so instead of one he knocks down a bunch of them. One more mark on my chart! CamCam loves goldfish, so I give him a bag to snack on. This makes him very happy. I get a round of applause from him as I'm trying to open the bag- he can't wait! He happily settles down to eating his goldfish and playing with them. He picks one up, and has it "swim" and talks his little babble for the goldfish, and then CHOMP! Big big laugh from CamCam- why do boys love to play this way? Poor little defenseless goldfish happily swimming along and they think it's funny to come along and chomp it to bits. Oh well, at least he's happy. At some point I feel my cart roll over something crunchy. I look, and I've just rolled over an entire bag of goldfish dumped all over the floor. Guess that's his way of telling me he's done with them. Wonder how many marks on my chart this will be?

At the checkout aisle, Houdini CamCam has finally wiggled his way out of the seat belt, sort of. I look down and he's pretty much laying across the floor with his 2 feet stuck in the car. He's using his hands to "walk", but I don't think I can leave him this way. Out he goes! He's finally free! He runs to the movie rental machine just opposite the checkout counter. All these colorful pictures at kid level- hey look! There's a picture of Sponge Bob! And Dorra! Hey, let's bang on them as hard as I can, maybe I can make them come out!

How many marks on my "bad chart" do you think it would be if he broke the machine???

I Love You Duct Tape!!!!

What started out as a little bit funny has now turned into a nightmare. The first time I saw CamCam run past me with his little nakie butt poking out under his shirt, it was cute. I had a good chuckle, told the kids to look at CamCam, how funny was this. Put his diaper back on and told him he was a silly boy. Once I went to check on him during his nap and he was sleeping on his belly with his little butt in the air. So funny again! I slipped a diaper on him and he didn't even wake up.

Then this event started to become more and more frequent, and it wasn't quite so funny. Accidents started happening. Peeing on my bathroom floor. Peeing on his bedroom floor. Peeing on my washer. Peeing on my laundry. Peeing on a blanket. Now I wasn't chuckling and I wasn't telling the kids to look at how funny this was. This is no longer cute.

Then this became a new power struggle between us. He was constantly taking his diaper off. "Mom, CamCam has his diaper off!" I'd hear one of the kids yell multiple times a day. Even "Mr. Trouble" would let me know. It was so cute to see little "Mr. Trouble" go into daddy mode with CamCam: "CamCam! Put your diaper back on- right! now!" EVERY time I tried to get him in for a nap, he'd take it off and throw it over the gate. I'm quite positive it was thrown in anger. You're going to try and make me take a nap? THERE! (throws diaper) that'll show you!

But then it was taken to a whole new level. I was folding laundry outside his room waiting for him to fall asleep during his nap. He opens the door and says "poop ma". I turn around to see him holding his diaper in both hands over the gate. Yuck! Now here's the kicker- about half the time he'd take his diaper off and hand it to me when he pooped. And half the time he'd leave it on, and when I went to change him he'd have an absolute fit and yell and scream and thrash around. I thought he was taking it off because he hated being in poop, but it just goes to show you can never understand a 2 year old mind.

Tonight I went out... (YAY!) ...and when I came home I went to check on CamCam who was "in bed." I use that term very loosely. Of course he's diaperless. I ask him where his diaper was and he says: "ba ma abaa bah da". I start getting his brother ready for bed and tell CamCam to find me his diaper so I can put it on him. He goes over to the door, and pulls it out from under a sheet and pillow he'd thrown over the gate earlier. I told him to bring it to me, and I walk over to grab the pillow and my foot steps in something wet. YUCK!!! It's an enormous puddle of pee right inside his door! Gross! I need to clean this up without little hands and feet in it, so I tell CamCam to take his diaper down to dad and have dad put it on. I tell "Mr. Trouble" to stay on his bed, don't get down, the floor is gross and mama needs to clean it. Whatever you do, don't get down. I use the sheet that's already there half covered to finish the initial wiping up of the offensive liquid when what rolls out from under it??? Yup, you guessed it! Now I realize that at this very moment, CamCam is carrying a diaper that's probably full of this stuff down 2 flights of stairs to dad!!!! I go running and yell "DON'T PUT THE DIAPER ON HIM!!!" Obviously a little boy of almost 4 cannot be expected to sit on his bed and ignore all this excitement going on around him. So I run back upstairs to see him standing in the middle of our lovely mess asking me what's wrong. Ahhhhhhh!!!

So after lots of cleaning up of kids, lots of bed stripping, lots of blankets, sheets, stuffed animals and anything else in the vicinity of this horror put in the wash, tons of scrubbing and disinfecting, little guys are back in bed. And I go down to the kitchen, grab a roll of duct tape and cut off a very long strip. I bring it back upstairs and wrap it around the front of his diaper tabs so it meets in the back. Guess what the best part is? I bought this duct tape to go around our white air conditioner in our white trimmed window, so it's white. And so is CamCam's diaper! Hahaha- he can't tell where the duct tape ends and the diaper begins and so won't be able to take it off!

I *think* I may have won this battle. :)

On The Other Hand...

I thought about it, after my last entry, and it's only fair if I point out that there are many things I bought for CamCam that I didn't need to. In fact, the money I could have saved on these items, would probably have evened out what was on my other list. So, again I'm giving anyone that needs it a heads-up. Here are some things you may think you need for your toddler, but in fact you do not:

The most obvious one, from the majority of pictures on here, should be clothes. I know it may not look like it but CamCam does own clothing. I do dress him. He just strips down to his diaper everyday. I'm not sure what it is about this age, but 2 year olds like to be naked. It has absolutely nothing to do with being hot either. It's pretty cold here toward late afternoon now, and he went onto our deck the other day and said "cold ma" so I told him we'd go and get a shirt and pants on and he said no and threw a fit. He wanted me to somehow miraculously create warmth around him. I guess I should maybe feel honored that he thought that was within my capability. The worst part about all of this is that lately he's decided that running around in a diaper is way too confining, and has started taking that off as well. I know some would say that taking off their diaper is a sign that they are ready for potty training. And to those people I would reply that unless running around my house and randomly peeing on my floor and peeing on my pile of clean laundry and laughing about it is potty training, I think I'll continue to fight about keeping a diaper on, thank you very much.

Do not bother buying a toy box or any sort of container to keep toys in. A two year old's sole mission in life is to empty such things. It's like the best game in the world to them to empty what you've just picked up. If they do feel the need to have their toys picked up, they will find their own, more appropriate spot:

Honestly, I was quite impressed that he was able to shove every single item from his room into this tiny little spot. It must have taken quite a bit of effort.

Do not buy a two year old their own toothbrush. They'll never use it anyways. They'll use everyone else's toothbrush, but never their own. I think it is because they're always watching what family members do, and then following along. So I figure that CamCam has seen us all using our toothbrushes and so in his mind figures those are good, safe toothbrushes to use. However when I try and give him his toothbrush, he's probably thinking: "No way am I using that, no one in this house will use this one, what makes you think I want it????"

Do not buy dishes for your toddler. They never use dishes. Every meal I give CamCam ends up on the table. First thing he does is dump his food onto the table. I'm really really trying to teach him manners and how we eat off of a plate or out of a bowl, but he waits until I'm no longer looking at him and dumps his food onto the table.

Actually that's the best case scenario. The worst is when he's eating elsewhere and so dumps his food onto the couch or onto the floor to eat. The other night I made popcorn. I put way too many seeds into the pan and ended up with an enormous bowl of popcorn. It was massive. I had made it after the kids were in bed, and so had tons left over and put it on the kitchen counter. The next day, I was taking a shower and my 2 older kids went and got themselves a very small bowl of popcorn out of it and brought it downstairs to eat while watching a movie. "Mr. Trouble" wanted some too and so went upstairs and brought down the entire massive bowl to share with CamCam. I truly do not understand why one of my older two didn't think for a moment that this was a bad idea. Didn't they see "Mr. Trouble" walking down with a bowl larger then him? Didn't they see him and CamCam sitting RIGHT NEXT TO THEM with it?? Didn't they see CamCam dump the entire bowl and then sit in the middle of the popcorn pile to eat???? Why didn't one of them think "hey, this doesn't seem like a good idea, maybe I should take this giant bowl away and bring them a smaller one?"

Lastly, I probably didn't need to buy CamCam his bed. He doesn't sleep in it anyways. Apparently a plastic box is better. The crib was a few hundred, the plastic box cost me $2.99. I wasted a lot of money.